MADISON, N.J. – The FDU-Florham baseball team took the field for the final time in the 2015 season on Saturday afternoon and fell to the Misericordia University Cougars 2-1 in game one  of a Freedom Conference doubleheader and 10-3 in game two in Madison, N.J.

On a day to honor the seniors for their outstanding careers in a Devils uniform, senior AJ Pichalski (Iselin, N.J.) got the start for FDU-Florham in game one and he was masterful, tossing a strong seven innings while striking out eight and only surrendering one earned run.

Pichalski got into trouble early though after he hit the leadoff batter and walked Jeremy DeCotiis. With the two runners advancing into scoring position on a sacrifice bunt, Pichalski gave up his lone run on the next at bat for the Cougar when Mike Comerford grounded out to the left side of the infield.

The Cougars went a different route, using a pitcher by committee approach in the contest. The four pitchers used by Misericordia were able to effectively and efficiently get through innings.

In the bottom half of the third, Kevin Sinclair (Fairfield, CT) was walked and Vinny Bonaccorso (Toms River, N.J.) reached on an error. Frankie Tassielli (Florham Park, N.J.) then came up and drew a base on balls to load up the bases with two outs. However, the Cougars worked out of the bases loaded jam to keep the Devils off the board.

Junior Al Reda reached base safely for the Cougars in the top of the fifth when a Devils infielder committed an error. Reda came around to score on a DeCotiis RBI single up the middle to give the Cougars a 2-0 lead.

Sophomore Nick DeAngelis (East Hanover, N.J.) led off the bottom half of the seventh with a single to right center and found himself on second after a wild pitch. The Cougars recorded an out but then Josh DellaPietro (Bayville, N.J.) came up and shot a single up the middle. With runners on first and third with one out, Sinclair hit a sacrifice fly to right field to bring in the Devils run, but it was not enough as the Cougars worked out of the inning to seal the 2-1 win.

In game two, the Cougars bats jumped on the Devils early once again and plated three runs in the first inning.

Trailing by three runs, the Devils got their first two runners on base in the bottom half of the first before Tassielli came up and crushed the ball over the left field fence for a three-run home run to tie the game up.

However, the Cougars retook the lead with a three-run second inning after some costly mishaps by the Devils defense.

In the top half of the fourth, the Cougars were leading 7-3 before Chris Boroch reached base safely on an error by the Devils. Boroch came around to score once DeCotiis roped an RBI triple down the right field line.

The fifth inning was favorable to the Cougars as they got the first two runners on. After Reda was hit by a pitch, Misericordia had the bases loaded with one out. Boroch then hit a sacrifice fly to right field and DeCotiis followed it up with an RBI single into left center to give the Cougars a 10-3 lead and the eventual win.